¹Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

Correspondence: Dr CM Bollard, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, 6621 Fannin Street, MC3-3320, Houston, TX 77030, USA. E-mail: cmbollar@txccc.org

Received 9 March 2007; Accepted 9 March 2007; Published online 14 May 2007.

Abstract

Advances in the past few years have significantly improved adoptive immunotherapy strategies available following autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Minimal residual disease, relapsed disease and viral infections remain a significant cause of mortality in patients undergoing HSCT. Novel therapies are critically needed to overcome these management dilemmas, while sparing the graft-versus-tumor effect and avoiding graft-versus-host disease. This review focuses on the T-cell strategies currently available to allay disease while minimizing toxicities in patients who have undergone HSCT.